Let me introduce myself. I am Nina Mollicone, the daughter of Marilyn R. Noyes Mollicone, for whom a commemorative bench and tree, an Accolade Elm, are found in the field at Jordan Farm, part of the Augusta Nature Education Center. You might wonder if I am qualified to write a nature blog. To that question, I would say, “Yes,” and, “No.” My mother was the nature expert, a botanist and naturalist in passion and at heart. I learned about the natural world through nature walks I took with my mother throughout my childhood and adulthood, including time spent in the Augusta Nature Center when my mother became the Director of the Augusta Nature Camp, a day camp for children, run by the Augusta Nature Club. I was a teenager when this happened and still largely bored by the walks (strolls) in the woods, during which I pretty much ignored my mother’s attempts to teach me anything. Perhaps if my mother had hiked right along, I would have been more interested. But, then, she would not have found all the things that she found. She was fascinated by so many things. Two hours later, we might have progressed 200 yards. Me, I was zoned out in my own thoughts, wishing that the walks would hurry up and be over.
Nature hikes were not as bad as being dragged to mines, though. My parents belonged to the Kennebec Rock and Mineral Club. When I was a younger kid, weekends meant going to a mine for the day. I hated it! Hanging around in mine dumps, bored to tears, was not my idea of fun. My brother, on the other hand, loved it. He loved rocks and minerals so much that he studied geology and became, wait for it……a petroleum geophysicist. Impressive! Me? I became a nurse. Mines, and rock and mineral shows, were not a total waste of time, though. I learned to identify a lot of different rocks and minerals before I was 12 years old. Kinda fun as an adult to be able to call out the identity of a specimen that other folks are pondering over.
My interest in learning about nature resulted from a need to know when I got hired (by my mother) to be a camp counselor for the summer at the Augusta Nature Camp. It was only then that I paid attention to the names of the plants and the trees and the other aspects of nature around me. I learned well at least as to what was present in the Nature Center. I would say I have retained between 50 and 70% of what I learned back then. I have since added to that knowledge by a lot, largely due to walks taken with my mother, in the Nature Center and elsewhere, where we looked at every plant and tree we came to, and if we did not know, tried to figure it out. I remember one walk, years ago, through the family woodlot up to the Merrill Place, where the foundation of a barn was all that remained of a homestead that belonged to one of my mother’s childhood classmates. Across from the barn, where the house used to be, we found a large clump of a plant that my mother could not identify. Stumped, we took a specimen home and spent a couple hours of quality family time pawing through plant identification keys and books until we figured it out.
In more recent years, our walks in the Nature Center were mostly in the area known as Jordan Farm and along the Whitney Brook trail, a gravel road that parallels the brook and serves as access for the City of Augusta sewer line. Both areas are easy walking. The Whitney Brook Trail, in the spring, summer, and fall, is the best place to see a wide variety of blooming flora. The road/trail runs between Cony Street (Extension) and South Belfast Avenue, and, according to alltrails.com, is 1.2 miles from one street to the other and back. A small parking area exists at both ends. The Jordan Farm tract includes a quarry, a field, and trails through the woods. From Jordan Farm, one trail goes all the way to The Capital Area Technical Center (Cony High School). Be advised, this trail has some steep ups and downs. Other trails from Jordan Farm leads to other locations in the Nature Center. The Jordan Farm field is filled with an abundance of wildflowers, including many off-the-beaten path hidden gems. It is also the location of the bench and accolade elm that was placed in 2017 in honor of my mother’s long-time service to the Augusta Nature Education Center. Next time you are walking at Jordan Farm, take a few minutes to “set a spell” on the bench and engage with the sounds and smells and sights of nature that are free for the taking in the heart of the City of Augusta, Maine.
Nature Blog by Nina Mollicone Copyright December 4, 2023
SPRING HAS SPRUNG, HASN’T IT?
Nature Blog April 6, 2024
By Nina Mollicone
Spring has sprung in the Augusta Nature Education Center. Or, not. It depends on which day you go for a walk. For a few weeks last month, it looked like we were well into spring and looking forward to “The Big Night,” the night the frogs and salamanders make their way en masse to their breeding grounds. I went to an excellent presentation on April 1st about “The Big Night,” put on by Kennebec Land Trust and Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed. The conditions need to be just right for the amphibian migration. The ground needs to be thawed and free of most of the snow, it needs to be rainy, and the temperature at night needs to be above 40 degrees F. For more information about this, check out https://www.vernalpools.me/big-night/. Although, the migration has started in Southern Maine, in Augusta, it has been delayed by the two big snow storms we have had in the last 2 weeks. Kennebec Land Trust is planning a “Big Night” event when the conditions are just right. This is open to folks interested in participating. For more information on this, check out www.tklt.org.
Meanwhile, back at the Augusta Nature Education Center, winter has given way to spring, then back to winter, then spring, then winter, again. What crazy weather! Winter was very beautiful. I had some very nice snowshoeing and x-country skiing ambles over the winter. All the nature center can be accessed by snowshoe. As far as x-country skiing, I stick to the mostly flat trails. Whitney Brook trail is the best for skiing. Jordan Farm field and the Jordan Farm alternate trail can also be skied but do have a couple hills that I needed to side step down. Perhaps the best parts of nature during the winter are the patterns made from the snow on the trees and rocks. One day, when the sky was gray and overcast, the landscape in the center seemed to be in grayscale rather than in color. It was quite a remarkable to experience.
Despite the beauty of nature in the winter, I am not sad to see the snow and cold gone. I am not a cold weather person. I would not mind the snow if the temperature was in the 70s. That is unlikely to happen. For years, I have said that when I retire, I will summer in Maine and winter in Florida. That is unlikely to happen, too. So, I make the best of it, trying to get outside in nature as much as I can in the ways I am able.
I went for a walk at Jordan Farm before this latest foot deep snow fall. I was disappointed that there were no ducks in Jordan Farm Quarry Pond. A woman who was walking by said that the ducks had been there. So, I will try again to see them another day. I did find the Skunk Cabbage in full bloom. Beautiful! I have never seen it in full bloom before. Rather like, as a friend said, “Alien, spring brood…,” it does look rather otherworldly. I did not make it before the snow to see if the 2nd flower that opens in the spring was out, yet, or not. That is Colt’s Foot. I usually find it on Whitney Brook trail on the way to the Lily Pond. The same friend said the Colt’s Foot was in bloom along the Rail Trail already. Thus, the Lily Pond, to look for the Colt’s Foot, will be my next expedition when the snow melts.
On a sad note, the Augusta Nature Club lost a dedicated member and past president last week, Heidi Munro. She was an active member of both Augusta Nature Club and Kennebec Valley Garden Club and will be very much missed. We send our deepest condolences to her family.
Don’t get discouraged. Spring will come to stay. By mid-May, the leaves will pop out seemingly overnight. The spring walk in the nature center will be on May 15th, 2024. The walk will be led by naturalists Gaby Howard and Beth Brooke. Meet at the Cony Vo-Tech School, the first parking lot, where the greenhouse was, at 10:00 a.m. rain or shine. For more information, call Augusta Nature Club president, Marie Erskine, at 207-549-5474, or via e-mail at [email protected]. Check out our events page for other 2024 Augusta Nature Club meetings, fieldtrips, and events. We hope you will join us.